Page 63 of Happily Never After
Her mouth curves into a smile. ‘Does Angus know about Finn?’
‘Of course not! It’s none of his business.’
‘Aha!’ Her smile widens as her face lights up in triumph.
‘What?’
‘There’s an “it” between you and Finn.’
‘Sorry, I’m not following you.’
‘I asked if Angus knew about you and Finn. You saiditwas none of his business. Ergo, there’s anit, which is a thing, between you and Finn.’
‘You know I said I was after some advice?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m kind of regretting that now.’
‘Nonsense. I should be charging you for this shit. Freud has nothing on me. So, do we agree that there is something between you and Finn?’
I sigh. ‘I don’t know.’
‘OK, let’s rephrase it. Can we agree that you’d like there to be something between you and Finn, at least?’
‘I don’t know that either. I mean, I really like him, but maybe it’s not meant to be anything more than friendship.’
‘Sorry, but that’s a coward’s answer.’
‘No, it’s a realist’s answer. I don’t know enough about him to work out if we’d be compatible, and I don’t want to get burned again.’
‘And yet the kisses on his texts, which may be nothing more than force of habit, have made you all gooey.’
I sigh. ‘They have.’
‘I’m going to leave that with you to think about. Back to Angus.’
‘Must we?’
‘I think we can both agree that he’s your most pressing problem, given that he’s literally there in your face.’
‘Maybe I don’t need to do anything, just wait for Gina to murder him.’
‘She might murder you if she thinks you’re responsible for his arrival.’
‘What a mess.’
Liv grins. ‘I don’t know. You were after inspiration, weren’t you? Take me through the cast of characters on this retreat again.’
I’m relieved by the distraction. ‘So we’ve got Gina at the top of the Double-Doubles, which are made up of her, Suzie and Grace.’
‘The loyal acolytes,’ Liv agrees.
‘Not so loyal, actually. They both admitted to me this morning that Gina’s getting up their noses.’
‘Interesting. Go on.’
‘Then there’s Tess, the retreat leader. She’s pretty much neutral in all this.’
